Showcasing Bands 2021: Overseas Night (Part 2) — jazzahead!

Showcasing Bands 2021: Overseas Night (Part 2)

31. March 2021
Jasmin Tabatabai & David Klein Quartett: „Jagd auf Rehe“
2. April 2021

jazzahead! and International jazz Day Germany have teamed up to present you the jazzahead! 2021 showcasing artist even before the event in articles, interviews and more.

Faraj Suleiman Trio (PS)

Faraj Suleiman, outstanding and unique Palestinian keyboard virtuoso and composer playfully knows how to create a fascinating fusion of Arabic elements and timbres with jazz, blues & classical music of western influence.
Living in Paris, the keyboard virtuoso recently wowed audiences at the Montreux Jazz Festival, who invited him back for 2020 but had to cancel the festival due to the Corona pandemic. In this country he has already played at the Haldern Pop Festival, EnjoyJazz (Karlstorbahnhof) as well as Reeperbahnfestival, where he created his very own sound worlds. It is both his groundbreaking original compositions and his interpretations that make him one of the leading composers in the Arab world. In the last five years, he has released six albums in addition to his work as a composer for the theater, among others. Currently Faraj Suleiman is working on no less than three new albums, including a vocal album.



Melissa Aldana (US/CL)

Melissa Aldana was born in Santiago, Chile and began playing the saxophone at six, under the influence and tutelage of her father Marcos Aldana, also a professional saxophonist.
Aldana began with alto, influenced by artists such as Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, and Michael Brecker and switched to tenor upon first hearing the music of Sonny Rollins. She performed in Santiago jazz clubs in her early teens and was invited by pianist Danilo Pérez to play at the Panama Jazz Festival in 2005.
On her most recent album Visions (Motéma) Aldana connects her work to the legacy of Latina artists who have come before her, creating a pathway for her own expression. Inspired by the life and works of Frida Kahlo, Aldana creates a parallel between her experiences as a female saxophone player in a male-dominated community, and Kahlo’s experiences as a female visual artist working to assert herself in a landscape dominated by men.



Ron Minis Trio (IL)

After producing and participating in various projects, mainly in the punk, noise and metal genres, Ron Minis is bringing his experiments and experiences into the jazz Piano trio format with 'Pale Blue Dots'.
Ron gained significant viral success last year with a series of critically acclaimed YouTube videos. He demonstrated how a piano can be used as a guitar and become a new playground for musical adventures, combining state of the art technology and sound effects. These videos exposed Ron to millions of viewers around the world, forming a wide global fan-base. Now, for the first time, Ron is delivering this wild spectacle to the live stage.



SooJin Suh Chordless Quartet (KR)

Suh Soojin is considered one of Korea's most promising female percussionists. She began playing piano at the age of five and drums at seventeen. She studied at the City College of New York, returned to Seoul after graduation and has since worked as a freelancer with numerous musicians.
With her Chordless Quartet, Suh Soojin completely frees herself from polyphonic harmony instruments on "Strange Liberation". In the interplay with Ko Daniel (awarded the title "Rising Star" 2018 by the Korean jazz magazine jazzpeople), Sunjae Lee and Kim Young Hoo (aka Hoo Kim), she gathers absolute top musicians around her, with whom she explores the boundaries of freedom. Suh Soojin also points out that freedom means responsibility, because freedom without consideration for others can turn into violence. The basic concept of all the Chordless Quartet's compositions is this contemplation of freedom with mutual consideration.